So in this last installment of our Squat Q&A, we’ll discuss another common question about Squats:
“What are the best assistance movements for the Squat?”
Of the Big 4 Barbell Exercises (The Squat, Bench, Deadlift, & Press) I feel like the Squat actually benefits the least from assistance exercises – especially if we are talking about lower stress / non-barbell / isolation type work. So whatever assistance exercises we are talking about using for the Squat, we’re mainly talking about barbell based variations of the squat.
I’ll briefly go through a list of a few of my favorites and how I’ve had the best success programming them. In terms of programming, we’ll assume a very basic intermediate routine – using a heavy, light, medium full body training split, or a 4-day per week heavy-light type split, and I’ll show you how I plug these exercises in. We’ll also assume that your “heavy day” or “competition” squat is the standard low-bar back squat.
#1: High Bar Back Squat
I like this movement with a slightly narrower stance, a deep range of motion, and often with a pause at the bottom. Ed Coan was a big fan of these, as back-off work after his heavy squats, and so that’s how I’ve generally used them as well. Very easy to just strip some weight off the bar after your heavy work for the day and knock out 1-3 sets. Deep high-bar back squats are tremendous for building up the Quads and I usually program them for sets of 8-10. This will build up the quads as well as increase your overall work capacity. These can be done for sets across or descending sets with shorter rest periods between sets. If you’ve never done this, just start with one back off set for 8-10 reps or you’ll struggle to walk the rest of the week. Add volume slowly over time as needed or as tolerated.
Example Week
- Monday – Heavy Squat / Light Deadlift
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5 x 405
- High-Bar Back Squat 1 x 10 x 325
- RDL 3 x 10 x 315
- Thursday – Light Squat / Deadlift
- Low-Bar Back Squat 3 x 5 x 365
- Deadlift 5 x 455
#2: Front Squat
Similar to the High-Bar Back Squat in the powerful stimulus you get in the Quads, I usually use this for lower reps but more sets than the High-Bar Squat. And I really like Front Squats as a Light Day Squat variant. I also like performing Front Squats after Deadlifts, as the low back fatigue from the Deads doesn’t seem to interfere with Front Squat performance that much, and the CNS stimulation you get from heavy Deadlifts really makes the lighter front squat loads fly up with some good pop! at the top.
Example Week
- Monday – Heavy Squat
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5 x 405
- Wednesday – Light Squat
- Front Squat 3-5 x 3 x 315
- Friday – Medium Squat
- Low-Bar Back Squat 4 x 5 x 365
Example Week 2
- Monday – Heavy Squat / Light Deadlift
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5 x 405
- RDL 3 x 10 x 315
- Thursday – Heavy Deadlift / Light Squat
- Deadlift 5 x 455
- Front Squat 3-5 x 3 x 315
#3: Paused Squat
Paused Squats are one of my favorite “medium day” exercises in an HLM routine. The loads are generally appropriate for a medium day level of stress, but instituting a brief 2-3 count pause at the bottom adds a greater degree of difficulty. You can also pause your light day squats, but usually on light days I’m not looking to make things really difficult by adding techniques like pauses to the program. I usually save these for medium days.
Example Week
- Monday – Heavy Squat
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5 x 405
- Wednesday – Light Squat
- Low-Bar Back Squat 3 x 5 x 285
- Friday – Medium Squat
- Paused Back Squat 5 x 4 x 345
#4: Paused Box Squat
The advantage to the Paused Box Squat is that recovery from the pause on the box seems to be a bit easier than a dead stop pause without the box. The other bigger advantage to the box squat is the ability to really overload the posterior chain by sitting further back into the squat than the regular squat or paused squat will allow. Doing paused box squats correctly should really allow you to feel the hamstrings more so than any other squat variation. This also makes the box squat a good option for inclusion in your training if your deadlift needs a little stimulus. In my opinion, if you are not using the paused box squat to sit further back than in your normal squat, there is really no reason to use the box. The main drawback to the box squat is the dependency you can develop on the box for the feel at the bottom. I rarely recommend you use the box squat exclusively because it can ruin the feel of the bottom of the squat. Box squats are good for working around knee injury / knee pain and this is the only case where I’ll use box squats exclusively. Box squats can be used for regular straight sets of around 5-reps per set, or used for Dynamic Effort Training. Box Squats are great for a medium day squat variation.
Example Week
- Monday – Heavy Squat
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5 x 405
- Wednesday – Light Squat
- Low-Bar Back Squat 3 x 5 x 305
- Friday – Medium Squat
- Paused Box Squat 4 x 5 x 345
Example Week 2
- Monday – Heavy Squat / Light Deadlift
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5 x 405
- RDL 3 x 10 x 315
- Thursday – Heavy Deadlift / Light Squat
- Heavy Deadlift 5 x 455
- Dynamic Effort Paused Box Squat 10 x 2 x 325 (1 min between sets)
#5 Pin Squats
While some will use Pin Squats interchangeably with box squats in their programming templates, I have found that pin squats are quite a bit more stressful and more difficult to recover from quickly than a paused box squat. Pin Squats can be quite brutal on the quads and also the knees. Like other exercise variations that are paused in the rack (pin presses, rack pulls, etc) I’m usually careful about the frequency of the pin squat. While I really like the exercise, I typically don’t program them more frequently than every other week. Because I have found them to be on the high end of the stress spectrum, I usually program them on the heavy day during the week and then regular squats will be done on the light and/or medium day that week. Pin Squats really force the lifter to explode out of the hole and it’s damn hard to get a heavy barbell off the pins. This has the potential to build some serious strength.
I have found that I like programming Pin Squats with clients using 5 x 5 in Ascending Sets rather than with sets across. This gives the lifter some decent volume, but less risk for overstressing them. This also helps them to really dial in the technique prior to the main top heavy set of 5. So if the lifter is aiming for a top set of 5 at 365, the work sets might look like this: 225 x 5, 260 x 5, 295 x 5, 330 x 5, 365 x 5.
Example Week
- Monday – Heavy Squat / Light Deadlifts
- Low-Bar Back Squat 5 x 5, alternated each week with Pin Squats for 5 x 5 (Ascending)
- RDL 3 x 10
- Thursday – Light Squat / Heavy Deadlifts
- Low-Bar Back Squat 3 x 5
- Deadlifts 1 x 5
Those are really my main 5 that I would use regularly in programming. Of course there are other methods as well including specialty bars, bands, etc, but for most people reading this article, those 5 variations will give you plenty of variety to try and work with an improve upon over time.
There are of course dozens of bodyweight and machine based exercises that also train the quads, hamstrings, lower back, calves, and abs. These types of exercises (ex: leg presses, step ups, lunges, leg curls, glute ham raises, reverse hypers, etc, etc) can be useful for building up your total training volume and your overall work capacity, and can be useful for some forms of hypertrophy specific training, but they aren’t going to do much in terms of actually improving your squatting strength. Unfortunately the only way to do that is with squats and very close derivatives of the squat trained heavy and hard.
